Western Dental Services Inc

Western Dental Services Inc., a large dental health maintenance company, hired an industry veteran Tuesday as its new chief executive to help manage its growth and boost profits. Robert C. Schur, a former chief operating executive of PacifiCare Health Systems Inc.'s dental plan, replaced Michael Silva, a consultant who had held the posts of president and chief executive on a temporary basis since February 1995, according to a Western Dental official.

Western Dental Services Inc. said Wednesday that it named a new chief executive after the death in September of founder Dr. Robert F. Beauchamp, who was best known as the "credit dentist." The problem-plagued Garden Grove company, which bills itself as the nation's largest dental HMO, said it hired Samuel H. Gruenbaum, a lawyer and public accountant, as its new chief executive. Gruenbaum, 46, represented the company last year in its $1.

Here's another one for the file on Western Dental Services Inc. In a suit filed last month in Orange County Superior Court, an orthodontist has accused the controversial Garden Grove-based operator of dental offices of wrongfully firing him for refusing to participate in insurance fraud. Guy W. Mendivil, hired in February 1995 as an orthodontist in the company's Oceanside office, was promoted the following August to a management post, according to his suit.

"I gave the working people a service for a price they couldn't get elsewhere." --Edgar Rudolph "Painless" Parker, a controversial California dentist from early this century. * By all accounts, "Painless" Parker, who set up shop in Los Angeles in the early 1900s, was a real piece of dental work. Sporting a beaver-skin hat and a necklace strung with extracted incisors, Parker used traveling circuses, newspaper jingles and jugglers to promote business.

State regulators said Friday that they are asking the courts to fine Western Dental Services Inc. $3 million and to transfer the dental health plan into receivership for failing to correct alleged "quality-of-care" problems. Western Dental--owned in part by retired entrepreneur Dr. Robert F. Beauchamp Jr.

Western Dental Services Inc. said Wednesday that it named a new chief executive after the death in September of founder Dr. Robert F. Beauchamp, who was best known as the "credit dentist." The problem-plagued Garden Grove company, which bills itself as the nation's largest dental HMO, said it hired Samuel H. Gruenbaum, a lawyer and public accountant, as its new chief executive. Gruenbaum, 46, represented the company last year in its $1.

A chain of California dental clinics that allegedly refused to treat four men infected with the AIDS virus was sued Thursday in what is being portrayed as a new effort to crack down on AIDS discrimination by health care providers. Attorneys in the lawsuit against Western Dental Services Inc.--which widely advertises as Dr. Beauchamp, the Credit Dentist--said it may be the first of several suits targeting dentists who practice such bias.

California's largest dental HMO, already under state investigation for allegedly "shoddy" patient care, is now the focus of a federal criminal probe into insurance-fraud allegations made by former employees of Western Dental Services. About a dozen investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Postal Inspector's Office raided two Western Dental clinics Friday morning in the Sacramento area and hauled out boxes of medical records sought under court order.

Avoiding potentially harsher actions, Western Dental Services agreed Monday to pay $1.7 million in penalties, take corrective action and allow outside monitoring of its business activities to settle state charges that the company operated a "low-quality dental mill" that performed "shoddy, dangerous" patient care. The settlement allows the Garden Grove-based company's current management and its controversial owners, retired dentist Robert Beauchamp Jr.

In a scathing review of one of California's largest dental HMOs, state regulators Friday accused Western Dental Services of providing "shoddy, dangerous" medical care and showing a "contemptuous disregard" for patients, many of whom are poor or speak little English. "While this type of assembly line operation may be perfectly acceptable in the meatpacking industry, it has absolutely no place in the practice of dentistry," a lawsuit by the state Department of Corporations declares.

Here's another one for the file on Western Dental Services Inc. In a suit filed last month in Orange County Superior Court, an orthodontist has accused the controversial Garden Grove-based operator of dental offices of wrongfully firing him for refusing to participate in insurance fraud. Guy W. Mendivil, hired in February 1995 as an orthodontist in the company's Oceanside office, was promoted the following August to a management post, according to his suit.

Avoiding potentially harsher actions, Western Dental Services agreed Monday to pay $1.7 million in penalties, take corrective action and allow outside monitoring of its business activities to settle state charges that the company operated a "low-quality dental mill" that performed "shoddy, dangerous" patient care. The settlement allows the Garden Grove-based company's current management and its controversial owners, retired dentist Robert Beauchamp Jr.

California's largest dental HMO, already under state investigation for allegedly "shoddy" patient care, is now the focus of a federal criminal probe into insurance-fraud allegations made by former employees of Western Dental Services. About a dozen investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Postal Inspector's Office raided two Western Dental clinics Friday morning in the Sacramento area and hauled out boxes of medical records sought under court order.

In a scathing review of one of California's largest dental HMOs, state regulators Friday accused Western Dental Services of providing "shoddy, dangerous" medical care and showing a "contemptuous disregard" for patients, many of whom are poor or speak little English. "While this type of assembly line operation may be perfectly acceptable in the meatpacking industry, it has absolutely no place in the practice of dentistry," a lawsuit by the state Department of Corporations declares.

State regulators said Friday that they are asking the courts to fine Western Dental Services Inc. $3 million and to transfer the dental health plan into receivership for failing to correct alleged "quality-of-care" problems. Western Dental--owned in part by retired entrepreneur Dr. Robert F. Beauchamp Jr.

Western Dental Services Inc., a large dental health maintenance company, hired an industry veteran Tuesday as its new chief executive to help manage its growth and boost profits. Robert C. Schur, a former chief operating executive of PacifiCare Health Systems Inc.'s dental plan, replaced Michael Silva, a consultant who had held the posts of president and chief executive on a temporary basis since February 1995, according to a Western Dental official.

"I gave the working people a service for a price they couldn't get elsewhere." --Edgar Rudolph "Painless" Parker, a controversial California dentist from early this century. * By all accounts, "Painless" Parker, who set up shop in Los Angeles in the early 1900s, was a real piece of dental work. Sporting a beaver-skin hat and a necklace strung with extracted incisors, Parker used traveling circuses, newspaper jingles and jugglers to promote business.

* Douglas J. Reinhart has been appointed president and chief executive of ASL Consulting Engineers in Irvine. He succeeds Zareh G. Astourian, who retired. For the last six years, Reinhart was chief operating officer and senior vice president. * Tricia Evans has been selected to head Saddleback College's division of business science, vocational education and work force development. Evans had been associate dean of business at South Seattle Community College for seven years. * James H.

A chain of California dental clinics that allegedly refused to treat four men infected with the AIDS virus was sued Thursday in what is being portrayed as a new effort to crack down on AIDS discrimination by health care providers. Attorneys in the lawsuit against Western Dental Services Inc.--which widely advertises as Dr. Beauchamp, the Credit Dentist--said it may be the first of several suits targeting dentists who practice such bias.